New Year Countdown in Sihanoukville

Para ler sobre o Ano Novo em Sihanoukville em português clique aqui

I know, I know.. I'm late but I will catch up! hehe this post will cover my adventure in Sihanoukville during new year's eve.

In Cambodia there's no Christian new year, but, as it happened around the world the Western influence came here... but within a little bit different context. Probably watching by the TV what happened in Europe and the US, or even what the foreigners used to do here in Cambodia, the Cambodians linked new year to the countdown moment. That's so true that when we travelled there nobody referred to the new year itself but to the "Countdown", to the beer, to the party and the fireworks. Thus, exclude all that psycologic stuff that we see in Brazil when you get to the end of the year, exclude all people crying of emotion and take only the party side of the stuff. This perception is so strong that I hadn't the sensation of changing the year. That's one of the effects of being in a totally different culture, the changing rituals are totally different either.

To the Countown my company hired a bus, charged each person $10 and offered breakfast, lunch and beer, chicken, squid and prawns for the whole day on the beach. As it's usual here the capacity it's not hired for what it's needed but for what it can be hired. Thus, everybody got squeezed on the bus. It may not seem we were squeezed at the picture, but we were.

The largest shareholder of my company is also owner of half Cambodia, so we stopped at one of his business - in that case a quarry - for our breakfast. Below, picture of a typicall Cambodian breakfast, beef, egg and rice. Other sorts include chicken or pork.

Picture of our staff at the quarry. My ex-boss who hired me, Soknim, it's the 2nd one starting from me with the red t-shirt.

As soon as we got to Sihanoukville we went for lunch in one of the beaches. This is the Ream Beach which looks much more to a lake since it doesn't have waves. It's an empty beach and with no infra-structure at all, just some littering around. However, there are news that a huge development project is under way with many hotels, etc. Wait for it.

Finally we got to our final destionation Ocheteaul Beach, which differnt from the previous beach was not empty, AT ALL. The whole Cambodia decided to go to the beach for Countdown. It remembered me about the old 'Broa de Itirapina' (location in Brazil) with people doing 'farofada' (Brazilian expression that means when people go to a beach, or lake, and take their own food and drinks and not properly dispose their trash). It was like that. People stopped there in the sand, put their kind of 'carpet', the ice contained with the drinks and started to cook some food. We did the same. 

Some things must be noticed. The Cambodians don't wear bikinis or any other kind of swimming clothes. They go to the water with the whole clothes, pants, t-shirts, everything. According to some natives that I spoke to that happened due to the "cultural reform" during the Khmer Rouge in the 70s. Before that period Cambodian people used to follow worldwide fashion trends but after that the foreign influences started to be seen as a crime and not following the rules would result in death. More about that period in this post. The result was that people got used about going dressed to the water.

Ocheteaul Beach it's around 2 km long. We were at the left extreme side. This area is "popullated" by the poorer natives and has almost no infra-structure. At the right side, the composition changes and there are many rich natives and foreigners with many bars, restaurants, small hotels, but still with some backpacker feeling. 

There's an exception to the dressed swimming rule: the kids. The majority of the kids go naked to the beaches and that means shitng and piss in the sand, in the water.. but, these are the kids!! haha

Other local habit it's to make sculptures in the sand. In this case was sponsored by Nokia, but I've seen other good ones with no brand attached to it. 

And then I had a nice surprise. The Cambodians like partying and know all the modern Western-style songs. Our staff, mostly, are on their 20-30s and most of the time they have no access to go to a club or something like that so the people loved this space with electronic music in the sand. In the picture you cannot see that there were people dancing in the middle and around a kind of a "wall" of natives starring. There was happening a cultural shock within the same country. 

This picture it's some minutes before the Countdown. And then the new year comes... and... ??? Nothing. Nobody hugs each other, nobody thinks about the year that had just finished, nothing changes... leaving December and getting to January has almost no difference for them and it's almost the same as going from January to February.. that was a big shock. And if you account to the fact that there's no Carnival too and when Brazil has almost stopped here everything goes normal it's even more bizarre. Like I said, 2012 still have some 2011 air for me and it will be fun when I get back to Brazil and I will be half-way to 2013.

After that, some more beers and we went to the hotel. However, the budget allowed to have just 2 rooms but we had almost 30 people. The more private oriented found some other place to stay. The (few) women had a room just for them. Me and the Army got squeezed in 4-5/per bed (king size) and some others were allocated on the floor. An adventure! hehe

In the other day the people left but I stayed! I would have a meeting 2 days after in the city port which is our client. Since it would be 2 holiday days and there was no transportation to come, my company decided that it would be better me to stay until the meeting day. That's what I've done! :) Even though the gift was good it was even better to have a chance to make a good judgment about the Cambodian beaches which, YES, are very beautiful and should get as famous as Thailand's in the near future.

Another coincidence, due to the high season the cheap hotels were fully booked so I "had" to stay in the more expensive ones. I stayed in the right side of the Ocheateaul Beach which after the pier has other name, Serendipity Beach. I don't know if has to do with serenity but the place is really relaxing. In fact there's no sand, only stones and a path above it but the hotels face the sea directly. That was the view from my hotel. I stayed at the Aquarium Hotel and the rate was $35/day.

I ended up getting there earlier than I had booked so I decided to walk around to explore the area. I've found some big stones and then, to show you how the view looked like here's the picture:

Once I got my room I went to walk around the beach, including Ocheteaul. The pictures below are from the same beach of the previous day. It's nearly impossible to believe but that's the difference that a blue sky day and much less people can cause.

Walking here and there look what I've found. It's good to know we're becoming international fashion, hehe.

In the next day, since it was a holiday I've decided to hire some tour ($20, full day including lunch) to visit some island in the Sihanoukville's region. I hired a tour to Bamboo Island. Our boat was really simple but did well. On the boat there were some employees of an exportation company. They were 'celebrating' the Countdow together and (some) brought their family too. It didn't take long until one of them got sea sick and started to vomit everything in the water. Then they told me he had a lot of drinks in the night before. Soon I realized that one of them spoke better English and he was coordinating the people. I found out that he was the manager and he wasn't Cambodian but from Fiji Island. It's been 7 years since he came to Phnom Penh and we had a lot of conversation about Cambodia's situation, the infra-structure problems, corruption and what had changed in Phnom Penh in the past years. Like the French lady I've met in Halong Bay, in Vietnam, he told me that in the past recent years there was the cars and buildings revolution. The traffic once empty it's now jammed at anytime and the skies getting full of buildings. Progress with challenges.

Below, the view from Bamboo Island.

As usually happens when I meet Cambodians I had my 5 minutes of celebrity and his whole family came to take pictures with me.

I've made something on purpose. These pictures are not 100% honest. Let's say around 80%. I didn't take pictures of the cans, plastic bags and bottles, etc, that are all over this side of the island. I want to make positive propaganda about this place because I'm pretty sure it has a huge touristic potential and if that potentital becomes reality the trash will have to be better managed. Anyway, that's a chronic problem in Cambodia. People have the (bad) habit of leaving trash anywhere except the trash bin. In truth, generally, there are no trash bins at all so everything ends up in the street or in the bushes. The worst thing is that I see people who went to school and even made it to college but still keep that habit. When that have changed in Brazil? When we started to feel guilty when littering or seeing someone littering? That's a cultural-educational transformation interesting to discuss.

Well, coming back to the subject. There's a trekking trail to the Southern side of the island. That side is turned to the ocean so the waves are bigger, the water is not that clear and the sand not that thin. The good part it's that since is more distant almost no one goes there and thus it's almost desert with no trash.

So here is my 'report' about Sihanoukville. I'm sure that this will be a location more and more common in the itinerary of Southeast Asia travellers. For exemple, during the meeting at the port I've discovered that only in 2012 are schedule at least 12 cruise ships stops after an empty year in 2011. Enjoy while it's cheap! :) See you next time!! :)

Gostou? Tem críticas ou sugestões? Deixe seu comentário abaixo! :)

Ano Novo em Sihanoukville

To read about the Countdown in Sihnoukville in English click here

Eu sei, eu sei.. tá super atrasado mas vou colocar em dia! hehe esse post vai falar sobre a passagem de ano novo em Sihanoukville.

No Camboja não há ano novo cristão, mas, como aconteceu em boa parte do mundo a influência ocidental chegou até aqui... só que num contexto um pouco diferente. Provavelmente observando pela TV o que acontecia na Europa ou nos EUA, ou ainda o que os gringos faziam aqui no Camboja, os cambojanos associaram ano novo apenas à contagem regressiva. Tanto é verdade que quando viajamos para a passagem ninguém se referia à passagem em si mas ao "Countdown", à cerveja, à festa e aos fogos de artifício. Ou seja, exclua todo aquele cerimonial psicológico que tem no Brasil quando você chega parte do fim do ano, exclua a choradeira e pegue apenas a parte festiva da coisa. Essa percepção é tão forte que eu não cheguei a ter aquela sensação de mudar de ano. Esse é um dos efeitos em estar numa cultura totalmente diferente, os rituais de passagem são totalmente diferentes também.

Para o Ano Novo a minha empresa fretou um ônibus, cobrou $10 de cada pessoa e ofereceu café da manhã, almoço e cerveja, frango, lula e camarão o dia inteiro na beira da praia. Como é típico aqui no Camboja, a capacidade das coisas não é contratada pela necessidade mas pelo o que é possível. Logo, todo mundo ficou socado dentro do ônibus. Pode até parecer que não tá apertado, mas tá.

O maior acionista da minha empresa é também dono de meio Camboja, então paramos num dos seus outros negócios - no caso uma pedreira - pro café da manhã. Abaixo, foto de um café da manhã típico do Camboja, carne, ovos e arroz. Outras variações incluem frango ou porco.

Foto do pessoal na pedreira. O ex-chefe que me contratou, Soknim, é o 2o a partir de mim, de camiseta vermelha.

Logo que chegamos em Sihanoukville fomos almoçar em uma das praias. Essa é a Ream Beach que parece mais uma lagoa porque praticamente não têm ondas. É uma praia deserta e sem infra-estrutura nenhuma, apenas lixo jogado em volta. Porém, há notícias de que um enorme projeto de desenvolvimento está para ser implantado ali, com muitos resorts e tal. Aguardem.

Finalmente chegamos ao nosso destino final Ocheteaul Beach, que ao contrário da anterior não tinha nada de deserta. O Camboja inteiro resolveu ir para Sihanoukville para o Ano Novo. À primeira vista me lembrou o antigo Brôa de Itirapina com a galera fazendo a maior farofada. E era isso mesmo. O pessoal parava ali na areia, colocava a tenda, o isopor e começava a fazer a comida. A gente não foi diferente.

Algumas coisas para notar. Os cambojanos não usam bikinis/maiôs/sungas nem nenhuma roupa comum de entrar na água. Eles entram com a roupa inteira, calça, blusa, tudo. Segundo o que conversei com alguns nativos isso se deve à "reforma cultural" do Khmer Rouge durante os ano 70. Antes desse período o Camboja seguia as mesmas tendências de moda que haviam no mundo todo, mas após isso as influências estrangeiras passaram a ser consideradas crime e contrariar resultava em morte. Mais sobre esse período nesse post. Resultado, as pessoas passaram a ficar acostumadas a entrar na água com roupa. 

Ocheteaul Beach tem cerca de 2 km. O lado que a gente tava era quase o extremo do canto esquerdo. Essa é a área dominada pelos nativos mais pobres e quase não há infra-estrutura. Do lado extremo direito, a composição muda e predominam os nativos ricos e os estrangeiros com vários bares, restaurantes, hotéis pequenos, mas ainda tem cara de terra de mochileiro.

Há uma exceção à regra de ir de roupa na praia: as crianças. A grande maioria das crianças ficam peladas nas praias e isso significa cocô e xixi sendo feito na areia, na água.. mas enfim, são as criancinhas! haha

Outro hábito local, fazer esculturas na areia. Nesse caso foi patrocinada pela Nokia, mas eu cheguei a ver outras muito boas também sem nenhuma marca associada.

E aí eu tive uma surpresa legal. Os cambojanos gostam de balada e conhecem todas as músicas moderninhas que tocam no Ocidente. Os nosso funcionários, a maioria, é na faixa dos 20-30 anos e a maior parte do tempo eles não têm muito acesso a uma boate ou algo assim por isso o pessoal adorou esse espaço com música eletrônica e tal na areia. Na foto não dá pra ver mas tinha o pessoal dançando no meio e em volta uma parede de nativos parados olhando. Ali mesmo estava acontecendo um choque cultural dentro do mesmo país. 

Essa foto é de alguns momentos antes da virada. E aí chega a virada... e... ???? Nada. Ninguém se abraça, ninguém pensa no ano que passou, nada muda... sair de dezembro e ir pra janeiro tem quase nenhuma diferença pra eles e é tão igual quanto ir de janeiro pra fevereiro.. esse foi um choque grande. E se somar com o fato de que também não tem carnaval e enquanto o Brasil tá parando aqui tá tudo normal é ainda mais bizarro. Como eu disse, 2012 tem ainda um ar de 2011 pra mim e o mais engraçado vai ser quando eu voltar pro Brasil e já vai estar a meio caminho andado pra 2013. 

 Depois disso, mais algumas cervejas e fomos pro hotel. Um porém, o orçamento do evento só permitiu reservar 2 quartos mas nós tínhamos quase 30 pessoas. Os mais reservados acharam um outro lugar pra ficar. As (poucas) mulheres ganharam um quarto só pra elas. E eu e a tropa ficamos espremidos em 4-5 por cama (de casal) e outros ainda pior distribuidos pelo chão. Que aventura! hehe

No outro dia as pessoas foram embora mais eu fiquei! Eu tinha uma reunião 2 dias depois no porto da cidade que é nosso cliente. Como haveria 2 dias de feriado e não teria transporte pra vir, minha empresa decidiu que era melhor eu ficar na cidade até o dia da reunião. Foi o que eu fiz! :) E apesar do presente ter sido bom foi ainda melhor pra eu poder ser justo em relação às praias do Camboja que, SIM, são muito lindas e devem ficar tão famosas quanto à Thailândia no futuro próximo.

Mais uma coincidência feliz da situação, devido à alta temporada os hotéis mais baratos estavam todos lotados então "tive" que ficar nos mais caros. Fiquei na ponta direita da Ocheteaul Beach que depois do pier recebe outro nome, Serendipity Beach. Não sei se tem a ver com serenidade mesmo, mas o lugar é muito relaxante. Na verdade não tem areia, apenas pedras e um caminho sobre elas mas os hotéis dão de cara pro mar. Essa era a vista da frente do meu hotel. Fiquei no Aquarium Hotel e a diária foi de $35.

Acabei chegando mais cedo do que o início da minha reserva então resolvi dar uma volta e explorar a área. Encontrei umas pedras maiores e daí, pra mostrar como era a vista de onde eu tava taí a foto: 

Já alojado, saí pra andar a praia toda, inclusive a Ocheteaul. As fotos abaixo são da mesma praia do dia anterior. É quase impossível acreditar mas essa é a diferença que um céu azul e muito menos gente no lugar fazem. 

Andando pra lá e pra cá, olha o que eu acho. É bom saber que estamos virando moda internacional, hehe.

No outro dia, como era feriado eu resolvi contratar algum tour ($20, dia todo com almoço incluso) pra conhecer alguma ilha na região de Sihanoukville. Peguei o tour pra Bamboo Island. O nosso barco era bem simples mas parecia ir bem. No barco estavam alguns funcionários de uma empresa de exportação. Eles estavam passando o Ano Novo juntos e trouxeram (alguns) a família também. Não passou muito tempo e um deles com o balanço do mar começou a vomitar tudo na água. Aí me falaram que ele tinha tomado todas no dia anterior. Depois percebi que um deles falava inglês melhor e estava coordenando a galera. Descobri que era o gerente e ele não era do Camboja, era de Fiji. Faz 7 anos que ele está morando em Phnom Penh e trocamos muitas idéias sobre a situação do Camboja, os problemas de infra-estrutura e corrupção e o que mudou em Phnom Penh nos últimos anos. Tal qual a francesa que eu encontrei em Halong Bay, no Vietnã, ele disse que de alguns anos pra cá houve a revolução dos carros e dos prédios. O trânsito antes vazio agora é cheio de engarrafamentos e o céu está enchendo de prédios. Progresso mas com desafios. 

Abaixo, vista a partir da ilha.

Como costuma acontecer quando conheço cambojanos tive meus 5 minutos de fama e a família inteira dele veio tirar foto comigo.

Eu fiz algo de propósito. Estas fotos não são 100% honestas. Elas são, digamos, 80%. Eu não fotografei a montanha de lata, sacolas plásticas, garrafas PET, etc, que estão pela ilha. Quero fazer propaganda positiva desse lugar porque eu tenho certeza que o potencial turístico é enorme e se esse potencial se realizar eu tenho certeza que o lixo vai ser melhor controlado. De qualquer forma, esse é um problema crônico no Camboja. As pessoas têm o (péssimo) hábito de jogar tudo em qualquer lugar menos o lixo. Na verdade, em geral, não existem lixos então tudo acaba terminando na rua ou no mato. O pior disso é quando eu vejo pessoas que foram pra escola e fizeram até faculdade mas que mantém o hábito. Quando isso mudou no Brasil? Quando que a gente passou a se sentir mal quando jogava ou via lixo sendo jogado na rua? Essa é uma transformação cultural-educacional bem interessante de discutir.

Mas enfim, voltando. Há uma trilha que leva para o lado sul da ilha. Como esse lado fica virado pro oceano, as ondas são bem maiores, a água não é tão clara e a areia é mais grossa. A parte boa é que como é mais distante, as pessoas quase não vão lá e portanto é praticamente deserto e não tem lixo.

Bom, fica aqui meu relato sobre Sihanoukville. Tenho certeza que será uma localidade cada vez mais lembrada nos roteiros dos viajantes pelo Sudeste Asiático. Por exemplo, na reunião no porto descobri que apenas em 2012 estão agendadas paradas de 12 cruzeiros na cidade depois de um ano vazio em 2011. Aproveitem enquanto for barato! :) Até a próxima!! :)

Liked? Would like to suggest something? Leave your comment below! :)

If you're moving to Cambodia..

Yes, what if you have decided to move to Cambodia? Well.. after almost 6 months of Cambodia here are my advice.. hope you enjoy! :)

Have a GOOD health insurance - I really mean it. If you want Western style medical treatment you better have a very good health insurance OR a lot of cash in your pocket. Myself I had the "opportunity" of being hospitalized due to kidney stones in a private hospital and the total bill was US$ 2,000 that thank God my insurance covered.

This is NOT play land - There's prostitution, there's a lot of corruption, there is some overall disrespect for standard society rules. That gives you the right to play like the song? NO. Do something good and DO NOT fund prostitution (I will not even mention about pedophilia). DO NOT buy books from the kids at US$1 in the Riverside area. DO NOT drive like crazy or disrespect the "universal" traffic laws. DO NOT look down at Cambodians. DO NOT fund begging behavior. DO NOT litter because everyone does. And everything else that you wouldn't do at your country, don't do it here.

However, IT'S NOT your country - So do not expect to have that big fancy mall waiting for you (there are malls but are not big and not that fancy). Also do not expect people to behave like you are used because naturally they won't and keep screaming in the middle of the street that someone didn't stop for you to cross it won't solve. GIVE the example instead.

DO NOT bargain for nothing - How much would you pay for a meal in your country? and a book? and a taxi? or a beer? So do not bargain that hard for nothing. If you're not from Southeast Asia (some countries) or Africa, it's very likely that EVERYTHING here is much much cheaper than you are used to pay. It's really not worthy to keep arguing with the local people for $0.50 or $1 that in the end won't make any difference for you but that WILL make a great difference for them.

Enjoy the GOOD things - that you will be able to notice that the tourists cannot. If you stay more than 3 months you soon gonna notice that a new plaza has been built, a new building has been refurbished and now looks very pretty, the nice old French plazas are extremely nice, the Riverside area is incredibly beautiful, etc..

DO NOT emphasize the bad things - since you are a long term person you gonna notice the lack of respect (or notion) of the rich (mostly) Cambodians driving their out of proportion big cars anywhere. The overall Cambodian people littering everywhere and buying things that they don't need with money that they don't have. Anyway, you gonna see exactly what the happy short term tourists won't notice and Lonely Planet won't tell you SO manage your feelings. It's really not good to feel anger about that and won't make it any better. Instead, try to convince people to change. Take ACTION!

Live LOCALLY - Which means.. try to spend like the locals do, try to eat what do they eat and go to their places. Soon you gonna notice that is incredibly cheap, good and you gonna get lots of fun and close to them. 

BUY A BICYCLE! DO NOT BUY A CAR! - Yes! Buy a bicycle, around $30-50 second-hand, and ride it everywhere for free! Give a good example to the locals! Do not buy a car because the streets are small, there are car exclusive traffic jams everywhere and since Phnom Penh is totally plain and quite small there's absolutely no need to own a car here.

Buy CAMBODIAN products - I agree with you that there are not so many options but there are some. Pay attention to the country of manufacturing of the products and always when possible choose for Cambodian made ones. It's extremely important to help the local industry to develop and it's the interest of the neighbor countries that you keep boosting importation.

Get the HOLIDAY calendar - There are many holidays in Cambodia and you will be able to enjoy them and get the best perks if you plan ahead. Make good use of planning and you will be able to transform those holidays on good trips.

UNDERSTAND - Cambodia went through civil war from the 70s to the late 90s therefore people had not too many feelings different from thinking about their food or their survival. Which means, they are not used to modern free feelings. Cambodians may not deal very well with passion, love, frustration, money, anger, or any other common stuff like that. They may get terribly depressed about a love frustration and put it all publicly. They may spend an amazing amount of money with silly and unnecessary stuff even if they're poor. DO NOT blame them, help them. Bring your experience since you have been taught how to manage that kind of feelings since you were a kid.

BE a celebrity - People still are not used to foreigners and anywhere you go you gonna attract people's attention. You gonna really feel like a celebrity. Sometimes people will keep starring at you so just look at them and smile and you are likely to get a nice smile back.

IT's NOT personal - When you are driving your bicycle around town you will be likely to get some horns from all type of drivers or even have to suddenly action the breaks not to hit a driver OR you gonna both stop in the middle of the street. Usually despite all that mess people will just smile and even if you have almost hit each other he/she won't be angry and probably won't scream at you.

BE safe - which means DO NOT let to go home too late at night alone and with valuable stuff with you. Phnom Penh is still a "countryside" city and gets incredibly empty after 10 pm. If you get back drunk and talking out loud in English (or Chinese/Japanese/etc) you are most likely to be an easy target. So, be careful. Do not take fancy cameras, passport, credit cards with you at night. Better, do not take any thing that can be snatched from you. I'VE SEEN IT!

Again, PLAN to travel abroad - It's not easy to travel from Phnom Penh to anywhere except Ho Chi Minh, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. All the other big cities/countries you may have to book your ticket very early or have plenty of time to go since there are not many cheap direct flights and you will have to go to Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok to get a connection.

HAVE an amazing experience with this wonderful and lovely people! :)